TY  - JOUR
A1  - Aichner, Bernhard
A1  - Bussian, Bernd M.
A1  - Lehnik-Habrink, Petra
A1  - Hein, Sebastian
T1  - Regionalized concentrations and fingerprints of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in German forest soils
JF  - Environmental pollution
N2  - Samples of 474 forest stands in Germany were analysed for concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in three sampling depths. Enhanced concentrations were mainly found at spots relatively close to densely industrialized and urbanized regions and at some topographically elevated areas. Average enrichment factors between mineral soil and humic layer depend on humus type i.e. decrease from mull via moder to more Based on their compound-patterns, the observed samples could be assigned to three main clusters. For some parts of our study area a uniform assignment of samples to clusters over larger regions could be identified. For instance, samples taken at vicinity to brown-coal strip-mining districts are characterized by high relative abundances of low-molecular-weight PAHs. These results suggest that PAHs are more likely originated from local and regional emitters rather than from long-range transport and that specific source-regions can be identified based on PAH fingerprints. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
KW  - Organic pollutants
KW  - PAHs
KW  - Soil
KW  - Emissions
KW  - Long-range transport
KW  - Enrichment factor
KW  - Humic layer
KW  - Mineral soil
KW  - O horizon
Y1  - 2015
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2015.03.026
SN  - 0269-7491
SN  - 1873-6424
VL  - 203
SP  - 31
EP  - 39
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - Oxford
ER  -